Posted on 02/27/2003 6:17:41 PM PST by Revel
Whistle-Blower Sues Electronic Voting Co.
Wed Feb 26,11:42 PM ET
By RACHEL KONRAD, Associated Press Writer
A whistle-blowing computer programmer is suing an electronic-voting company, alleging that it fired him because he intended to expose major flaws in its touchscreen voting software.
Daniel Spillane's lawsuit, filed Tuesday in King County, Wash., alleges several flaws in VoteHere's software, including unfinished code, software that fails to properly record votes and an inability to double-check results because of the lack of a paper trail.
In an e-mail Wednesday to The Associated Press, a spokeswoman for Bellevue-based VoteHere said the lawsuit had "no merit" but would not elaborate.
Some computer scientists have decried touchscreen voting machines as vulnerable to rigging and malfunction, even as hundreds of counties nationwide rushed to buy touchscreen terminals following the 2000 presidential election debacle.
VoteHere is a relatively minor player in touchscreen machines. It is better known for its work developing Internet voting systems in the United States and Europe; that work is not at issue in the lawsuit.
Spillane, 38, of Seattle, said Wednesday that VoteHere's software may have botched election results wherever it was used. The company would not say how many polling places have installed its products, but the lawsuit alleges that they have been approved for use in touchscreen terminals in Georgia and elsewhere.
"I don't think there's massive voter fraud going on," said Spillane, who was fired in 2001. "But I do believe that ... the checks and balances in the election process have been erased over the years."
Spillane said he was fired hours before he was to meet with officials from the Independent Test Authority, a private organization that certifies voting software, and the General Accounting Office (news - web sites), Congress' nonpartisan watchdog agency, which was reviewing ITA policies.
The lawsuit seeks at least $475,000 in lost wages and other damages.
Amen. While there are many bright conservatives in the computer/ data processing field, it seems like the majority of the IT companies, from Apple to Microsoft and all points in between are run by Leftists. I'm no fan of hanging chads and hand counting, I wonder how much better off we'll be with the likes of Comrade Jobs and Chairman Gates programming our touch screens and statistically sampling our votes.
One serious difficulty with eliminating the paper trail is that voting systems are required to make it impossible to tell which votes were cast by whom.
That being said, I think what's important is not necessarily to have a physical paper trail, but rather to have all votes recorded in a write-once medium which cannot be altered undetectably after it's written. Bipolar PROM might be good; OTP would be okay as well if it was enclosed in a radiation-evident case.
... in an electronic voting system - now THAT'S funny!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.